Der Spiegel: Russian Propaganda Campaign Targets German Elections
Ahead of upcoming regional elections in Germany, Der Spiegel reports that coordinated Russian disinformation campaigns, utilizing AI-generated content and bot networks, are actively attempting to...
Ahead of upcoming regional elections in Germany, Der Spiegel reports that coordinated Russian disinformation campaigns, utilizing AI-generated content and bot networks, are actively attempting to influence voter sentiment to benefit the AfD.
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Russian influence on German elections
Parliamentary elections are scheduled for September in Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Der Spiegel reports that Moscow’s propaganda clearly favors the AfD, with Kremlin-aligned bots targeting all political parties except for the AfD and BSW, which are viewed as potential coalition partners.
The newspaper details a large-scale campaign involving templates and artificial intelligence to spread falsehoods about mainstream politicians. These fabrications include allegations of participation in sex parties, money laundering via nursing homes and animal shelters, hacking political rivals, receiving lobbyist funding, and illegal hunting.
AI-driven smear campaigns
The Green Party is the most frequent target of bot activity. Der Spiegel notes the prevalence of pseudo-informational videos featuring stolen media branding, AI-generated background music, and automated voiceovers, often depicting exaggerated conflicts within Germany.
Examples of this disinformation include false claims that a Green politician possesses thousands of neo-Nazi books and a forged cover of the tabloid Bild with the headline “The West hates the East.”
Global bot networks and social media reach
Accounts spreading these falsehoods on X are allegedly traced back to countries including Bangladesh, Canada, Thailand, Colombia, Brazil, and Indonesia. These operations also persist on Instagram. Der Spiegel concludes that Putin’s propagandists are running an election campaign in Germany, daily utilizing disinformation that could warrant legal action, yet X reportedly takes no remedial steps.
AfD leads current polling
A recent INSA poll places the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) at 28 percent support, seven points ahead of the CDU/CSU conservative bloc. The Greens and the SPD both follow at 12 percent, while The Left holds 11 percent. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance and the Free Democratic Party both sit at 4 percent.